December 04, 2013

Fourty-seven Ronin

When I was driving home and heard on the radio that Keanu Reeves was in a new retelling of the Fourty-seven Ronin. I was interested but wondered where a white guy would fit in there. I ponder because it's a real event that happened about 1703 in Japan. That's a really strict and horrible time for pretty much anyone living there. It makes Game Of Thrones look like a bitch slapping party. If you aren't familiar with the Forty-seven Ronin story you can read more here. The story is about 47 samurai who serve Lord Asano Naganori. Asano insulted Kira Yoshinaka, a court official, and had to commit ritual suicide or seppuku. That's where you stab yourself in the gut with a knife or short sword and have your pal cut off your head with his big sword. It's usually only for those that are in power and their samurai. It's very ritualistic. Asano left his samurai as leaderless ronin and they plot for two years to get revenge. After killing Kira the they commit seppuku for the act of murder. That's part of the Samurai Code Of Honor called bushidō. It's all very complicated and not something I want to even think much about. I do like the movies with samurai in them and have watched two previous films based on the story. Neither of them is the typical samurai action film. There's not much fighting, it's not what the story is about.

The 1st part of Genroku Chūshingura was released in 1941 and the 2nd part the following year. It's pretty darn serious and almost 4 hours long. It started turning up in the US in the 1970's. I saw it the 1980's when it played at the Uptown Theater. I had a vhs tape that I copied off of cable but I never kept it. It's not something you might want to watch all that often. You can see the first part on YouTube, it doesn't look that great, but you can get an idea what it's all about from that. There was a 1962 film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki called Chūshingura. That's a much better made film but no slouch for taking it's time to get from the beginning to the end. I've seen it 3 or 4 times and the thing is 207 minutes. It stars Toshiro Mifune, why I would have seen it, and has music by Akira Ifukube, which is a nice bonus. It's well worth seeing.

The Keanu film on the other hand is not the same story and I'm doubting I'll give it the well worth seeing handle. It's some sort of fantasy fusion version where Keanu is an outcast and the ronin are avenging the murder of their master. There are giants and battles and fireballs. Oh my! It was supposed to out last Christmas time but they held off until March, then there were re-shoots and then the effects got worked on some more. It's now coming out December 25 2013. I know I won't be in the theater to see it.

For films with more entertainment value be sure to check out Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy. Three films from the mid 1950's with Mifune at his best. Those are the only other of Inagaki's films that I've seen. The third Samurai film, Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island, is one of my all time favorites. I bought the Criterion set of the movies and was glad I did.